Blake Lively’s new lifestyle site is…..interesting
After months of hearing about it, Blake Lively’s lifestyle site (She calls it a “new avenue”. Are we now calling web sites new avenues? Is this the “conscious uncoupling” of July?) is finally here and well, we are a little confused. It is called Preserve and it supposedly blends commerce, storytelling and philanthropic efforts (what Lively described as a virtual “Main Street, USA”) except to us it looks like an advertisement for a fancy whiskey company.
However, according to Vogue the site is “Part digital monthly magazine, part e-commerce venture, part video blog, the site will seek out and celebrate people all over America who are making things – food, clothes, pillows, dishes, dining-room tables – with their hands.” We also hope it is part Blake giving hour-long tutorials on how to do the perfect Rapunzel braid and her explaining why a Navajo blanket sweater really works for any occasion.
So let’s go through the site. First of all the name is a little strange but then again it is probably still way better than GOOP. But what does Preserve mean? Is it about how to remain a hot, gorgeous blond for as long as possible? Is it about jam upkeep? What Blake what?!
Actually the name makes sense when Blake explains it to us. “As for how we operate, we haven’t looked at Preserve as a new website, but rather as a new avenue. A sort of greatest hits of “Main Street, USA.” While the whole world races to keep up with technology, we may tighten our laces and join the race, but our end goal is to preserve what’s already there.”
And why is the site so dark? It doesn’t have to be pink with unicorns but it kinda looks like a trailer for a horror film. A horror film with really nice hand-selected bike baskets.
Then comes the e-commerce party where she convinces us that our life would be incomplete without a $400 wooden heart with Christmas lights. It’s no $200 t-shirt (like the one Gwyneth pedaled on GOOP) but it doesn’t seem like an essential. Plus, then she tells us that “I’m no editor, no artisan, no expert. And certainly no arbiter of what you should buy, wear, or eat” and then she tells us what to buy, wear and eat.
The site has been getting some negative feedback, probably because people are still recovering from the sting that is Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP (“I am who I am. I can’t pretend to be somebody who makes $25,000 a year.”) Perhaps the site could make a turnaround but perhaps the obnoxious too far removed from reality celebrity lifestyle web site/avenue is too saturated right now.
